IIM Bangalore breaks into top-50 in QS EMBA Rankings, grabs 36th spot

Institute was ranked 61 last year, this year its PGPEM programme has been ranked

From 61st position last year, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore has broken into the global top 50 Executive MBA (EMBA) Rankings by QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) this year at 36th position. 

The EMBA rankings measure management programmes meant for executives with prior work experience. In India, business schools (B-schools) like IIMs have their flagship programmes open for both freshers and working professionals. However, they also run one year executive management programme or MBA that are strictly meant for those with prior work experience of anywhere between five and ten years or beyond.

Under QS' EMBA rankings, IIM Bangalore's PGPEM programme has been ranked. 

Methodology of the EMBA rankings provide varied weightage to five metric groups including employer reputation, thought leadership, executive profile, career outcomes and diversity. While employer reputation carries a weightage of 30 per cent, thought leadership and executive profile hold 25 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively. Career outcomes and diversity hold the rest 20 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.

In particular, IIM Bangalore has performed excellently in our career outcomes metric, which measures the extent to which the graduates of a specific program enjoy promotions and salary increases, scoring 86.8/100 for the indicator. According to QS, this is demonstrative of IIM Bangalore's capacity to enhance the employment prospects of its students.

There are also two new Indian entries into the EMBA Rankings this year including Indian School of Business (ISB) debuting at 81st position, while IIM Kozhikode ranks in the 101+ grouping. 

Commenting on IIM Kozhikode's spot in EMBA, its director Debashis Chatterjee said that the placement underlines the B-school's commitment towards inculcating diversity, enhancing employer reputation, evoking thought leadership and offering distinct career outcomes to our students. "We hope to break new grounds globally with our other acclaimed academic programmes in the coming years to put India on the global education map," he said.

Apart from QS EMBA Rankings, ISB's Post Graduate Programme for Senior Executives (PGPMAX) has been ranked 43 globally in the Economist's Which MBA - Executive MBA Programme' rankings where ISB also gained the unique distinction of being the only B-School in India on the list.

The Economist's Which MBA -Executive MBA ranking is a comprehensive ranking of executive MBA courses around the world. ISB's PGPMAX is a 15- month global executive MBA level programme for senior-level employees with a minimum of 10 years of work experience.

As for QS' Executive MBA ranking, the sector is still one dominated by institutions in the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) with 62 of the 141 single-provider programs ranked are offered by American or British providers. 

Globally, The Wharton School retains its position as the world’s best in QS EMBA Rankings, while Spain’s IESE Business School and France’s HEC Paris – 2nd and 3rd respectively – indicate that Europe is also home to world-class providers. In total, 161 EMBA programs have been ranked.

Meanwhile, Asia’s leading Executive MBA program is offered by the National University of Singapore Business School at 15th rank which went up by three places, followed by globally 17th ranked CUHK Business School which went up by seven places, breaking into the top 20.